Confused with Vitamins/Minerals

pinheadplanet
pinheadplanet Posts: 24 Member
in Food and Nutrition
HI,

I'm on Day 5 of MFP and notice I'm short on Iron and Calcium.

Here's where I get confused, I thought Spinach was rich in Iron (it certainly says so on the MFP info blog: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/2013/09/26/nutrition-101-vitamins-minerals-infographic/ ) but when I added it to my Diary of foods it comes with a value of N/A, nothing, zilch, zero!

Same with Calcium on the Info page it says Yoghurt for calcium but when I check all my yoghurt inputs into my Diary again it's coming up with N/A.

I'm trying to balance my diet and and certainly increase my Iron intake as I suffer from being tired/no energy.


What's the deal?

Thanks

K

Replies

  • timbrom
    timbrom Posts: 303 Member
    A lot of the entries in the database suck, because most people suck, especially when it comes to numbers. Find entries that are accurate. One of the disadvantages of the site being free and everyone being able to enter whatever values they want for everything. Especially be wary of any entry that has (corrected) in the label - in my experience they are almost always wrong.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    It's a user created database. Find the accurate entries.
  • KassandraDuric
    KassandraDuric Posts: 2 Member
    Multi vitamins work wonders. If I miss taking my multi vitamin in the morning I don't reach any of my vitamin counts for the day and I wind up having the same issue as you. Also for the calcium, I suggest you drink at least 2 glasses of milk a day.
  • ThatSoundsHard
    ThatSoundsHard Posts: 475 Member
    It's a user created database. Find the accurate entries.

    Wow! That was your 6,000th post.

    Am I weird for noticing that?
  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member
    How are you adding your foods? Do you scan the bar in or do a search for a product?

    Some companies may not report all of the micros on their labels. Just the ones they are required by law.
    If you do a search on MFP and what you are looking for is not reported by the search result but it is on the label of the food, then manually enter the information.

    If the label doesn't report it, then buy a different product that does label completely. I do this. I notice most brands don't report potassium on their labels (especially many beans). I only buy the Walmart Great Value beans because they actually report on their label their potassium while other brands report nothing or N/A.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,409 Member
    Yeah, since the items are user entered many times, either find the accurate ones or add them yourself.

    If you use the database here, always use the entries in the database that have been entered by the MFP Staff. They are entered correctly, and they give options of ounces or grams, or cups or liters, tablespoons, etc.
    An added bonus is they list important things like Potassium, Vit A, Vit B, Magnesium and more in these admin-entered foods.

    You can find these by looking for the entries in the database that have NO ASTERISK ( * ) in front of them.

    When it comes to any fruit or vegetable, the easiest way is to enter "potatoes raw" -use the plural with fruit and vegetable, that's the way they were entered by staff. If you always enter "raw" it cuts the list way down and makes it much easier to find the no asterisk ones. Meat is a little trickier, but "raw" works. Look for the cooking method you use with meats, too.

    Also, once you enter your own food, or EDIT any foods they will then appear with no asterisk in the main database, and also can then be found quickly in the MY FOODS tab.
  • pinheadplanet
    pinheadplanet Posts: 24 Member
    Wow, I didn't know it is a user generated database.

    I try to scan as much as I can. Interesting about the 'no asterisk' I'll look out for that.

    So I probably was right, there is iron in spinach and calcium in yoghurt.

    I'll try to take everything on here with a pinch of salt from now on. Boom boom!
  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member

    I'll try to take everything on here with a pinch of salt from now on. Boom boom!

    You might want to take it with a pinch of calcium-chloride instead. ;-)

    Just double check with what the scan result is with the actual label or anything you can get from the web. If it is wrong, at the bottom of the scanned in search result, it says "BARCODE MATCH" with a button underneath that says "Not correct? Find Better Match".
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
    Also spinach is not quite as iron rich as Popeye would like you to think. There are better sources.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,409 Member
    Wow, I didn't know it is a user generated database.

    I try to scan as much as I can. Interesting about the 'no asterisk' I'll look out for that.

    So I probably was right, there is iron in spinach and calcium in yoghurt.

    I'll try to take everything on here with a pinch of salt from now on. Boom boom!

    The "no asterisk" thingy only works on the web version - if you are using a phone app, it isn't a feature.
  • pinheadplanet
    pinheadplanet Posts: 24 Member

    The "no asterisk" thingy only works on the web version - if you are using a phone app, it isn't a feature.

    Was thinking I hadn't seen any asterisks, have been using a tablet.
  • pinheadplanet
    pinheadplanet Posts: 24 Member
    Also spinach is not quite as iron rich as Popeye would like you to think. There are better sources.

    Like what Lizzy622?
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
    Also spinach is not quite as iron rich as Popeye would like you to think. There are better sources.

    Like what Lizzy622?

    Unsweetened cocoa powder

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